Translation of abstract (English)

My dissertation "The Naumburg Master in German art history" ("Der Naumburger Meister in der deutschen Kunstgeschichte") pursues two goals: a) provide a portrait of German art historical research in the years 1886 to 1989 and b) deliver a coherent explanation of the famous Naumburg founders’ cycle ("Naumburger Stifterzyklus") by evaluating contemporary documents which have never been evaluated before.

At first glance my study resembles the thematically similar publications by Willibald Sauerländer (1979) and Kathryn Brush (1993). But in fact it deviates in many ways from these previous attempts to write a critical history of the Naumburg research. The general impression as given by Willibald Sauerländer and Kathryn Brush is that the German art historiography up to the end of the 2nd world war was dominated by a nationalist sentiment. My study shows that this view is one-sided and in its one-sidedness not confirmed by the historiographic facts. In its method my study dissociates itself from professor Sauerländer’s programmatical verdict against subjective art historical description ("Pygmalionismus") because – as professor Sauerländer puts it – it shall be especially susceptible for nationalist ideologies. But many individual cases show that rather the opposite is true: that a meticulously detailed and subjective description is not prone to but ultimately imcompatible with ideological and nationalist views.

In the end, my study provides a positive new interpretation of the Naumburg founders’ cycle. This interpretation is based on an evaluation of previously unrecognized documents on the history of the Naumburg diocese and confirms a thesis of Friedrich Möbius: that the west choir of the Naumburg cathedral - the place where these figures are affiliated to the architecture - was originally planned by bishop Engelhard as a meeting place for the bishop’s synods. Although finally altered in spirit Engelhard’s original planning of a "synodal choir" ("Synodalchor") also forms the basis of the executed concept which was heavily influenced by margrave Henry the illustrious (Heinrich der Erlauchte). On the basis of contemporary documents the present study can show how the original planning of bishop Engelhard was transformed by intervention of margrave Henry who - after Engelhard died – was able to place his half-brother Dietrich as the successor on the bishop's throne in Naumburg. The new bishop Dietrich and his cathedral chapter finally realized the existing cycle of the Naumburg founders. But under continuing pressure from Henry the illustrious bishop Dietrich and his cathedral chapter carried out a modified concept of the west choir as a meeting site for synods:

Build in the 1240s the founders’ cycle now demonstrates the claim of the local Saxon nobility (the "wettinischer Adel") that they have historical rights to have their voices heard in these synods. The noblemen and -women make their claim with reference to the early time of the diocese when their predecessors have helped to found and finance the Naumburg church. Their claim is symbolized by historical counts and countesses in a symbolical spectacle in the west choir: eleven noblemen and noblewomen of the early Naumburg church are facing a historically well-known and infamous nobleman of their time, the "slain count Dietmar" ("Ditmarus Comes Occisus"). Count Dietmar was a traitor to the emperor Henry III. who himself was a patron of the early Naumburg church and a dear friend of the founder count Ekkehard who is shown as the leading figure in the choir. In the west choir the slain count is symbolically confronted and condemned by the Naumburg synod which is represented by eleven counts and countesses. The symbolical confrontation of eleven noble members of the early Naumburg church and one traitor was carved by a Saxon sculptor of genius named the "Naumburg master" ("Naumburger Meister") and his workshop. The sculptor (who came originally from Altzella, which is not shown in my dissertation but in my book "Der Naumburger Stifter-Zyklus") carved the statues by order of bishop Dietrich and the cathedral chapter, but the sculptor formed these figures under the powerful influence of Margrave Henry the illustrious.